Tag Archives: Lorneville

Belgian meat companies in New Zealand

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Murray Brown.Representatives of a Belgian company which has imported New Zealand frozen and chilled lamb for almost 40 years have made a flying visit to New Zealand.

Leading meat exporter and processor Alliance Group hosted a delegation from Van Aerde NV and its subsidiary Bimpex Meat NV.

The companies visited Alliance Group’s new venison processing plant at Smithfield near Timaru, a venison farm in Geraldine and the co-operative’s Lorneville plant near Invercargill.

Eddy Lannoo, managing director of Bimpex Meat NV, Jan Van Aerde, director of Van Aerde NV and Karin Severijnen, technical specialist at Van Aerde NV, also discussed the upcoming lamb and venison programme. Bimpex NV specialises in the importation of chilled meat and venison.

Murray Brown, general manager marketing, Alliance Group, said both Bimpex Meat NV and Van Aerde NV were important customers of Alliance Group.

“Bimpex imports between 3,500-4,000 metric tonnes of lamb and venison from New Zealand every year so we obviously value our relationship with them. The company also has strong historic ties with New Zealand, having been established in the 1960s and importing New Zealand frozen lamb to Belgium since the mid 1970s. They have also been importing frozen and chilled venison for 15 years.

“It was also the companies’ first opportunity to visit our new $8.6 million venison plant at Smithfield. The delegation were impressed with the investment in Smithfield, exceptional product quality and food safety standards.”

Until the upgrade, Smithfield only processed sheep and lamb and, with the recent investment, has created more than 50 jobs based at the plant.

 

Alliance to transfer Mataura sheepmeat processing to Lorneville

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Alliance Group announced this afternoon its intention to close its sheep and lamb processing operations at its Mataura plant and transfer them to its main Southland lamb plant at Lorneville, reports Allan Barber.

Mataura’s beef facility which has recently had a $15 million upgrade will continue to process beef with its remaining staff count of more than 400.

This decision is still up for final consultation with the workforce and union but, as always, this is a formality in as much as the decision has already been made. However, the media release indicates that other options could emerge during the consultation process. If the proposal remains unchanged, approximately 260 workers will be offered the chance to transfer to Lorneville with a further 65 engineering, administration and management staff also affected.

In a media release, Alliance’s chief executive Grant Cuff refers to the company’s status as one of Southland’s largest employers, emphasising its duty as a cooperative to its shareholders to operate the plant configuration most appropriate to the available stock numbers. Significant efforts had been made to retain complementary sheep, lamb and beef processing at Mataura, but declining stock numbers have made this unsustainable.

Cuff refers to the strength of Alliance’s balance sheet, which will enable it to withstand the challenge of a difficult period for the industry as a whole. He also says: “We are confident in the long-term outlook and these changes are essential to allow the company and its 5,000 farmer shareholders to benefit from the demand for New Zealand meat products in the global market.”

Today’s announcement confirms the rumours of industry rationalisation that have been circulating in recent days. The fact that Alliance has made the first move does not mean there won’t be further changes in due course affecting either the South Island’s other large cooperative Silver Fern Farms or ANZCO’s Canterbury Meat Packers operation near Ashburton.

However Alliance’s move will provide a small breathing space before further capacity or structural changes are necessary.

Alliance getting ready for new season

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Meat processor and exporter Alliance Group, like many others, has been busy getting ready for the new meat export season. The company has announced new plant and process modifications at two of its South Island plants, Pukeuri and Lorneville, recently. 

Additional shift and modifications at Pukeuri

Alliance is to provide an additional shift at its Pukeuri plant as it ramps up cattle processing in the peak period, the company announced last week.

The third shift at the plant north of Oamaru will enable the company to process 880 extra cattle a week through May and June when the cattle throughput traditionally hits its peak. the third shift will also offer about 80 existing employees from the sheep and lamb processing shifts a longer season.

Alliance Group is currently undertaking a number of modifications to the plant, including extending the cattle yards ahead of the change.

John Brader, general manager of processing at Alliance Group, says the additional third shift was necessary to ensure Alliance continues to meet the needs of its suppliers.

Alterations have been made in Alliance’s systems to accommodate the additional cartons, giving more flexibility to which blast freezers or equilibration chillers the product can be directed, he explained.

Pukeuri processes more than 10,500 sheep and lambs a day. More than 900 staff work at the plant, which is the largest employer in North Otago. It is estimated the plant injects around $100 million into the local economy each year.

New rendering plant at Lorneville

In addition, Alliance announced that it has also completed the construction of the building for a new $13 million rendering plant at it’s Lorneville plant near Invercargill. Rendering machinery is now being installed in the 1,121 square metre building. The facility, which is designed to reduce Alliance’s energy and operating costs, as well as improve product recovery, is expected to be commissioned in October.

The new plant incorporates the latest technology, including a Press Dewatering System, which uses less energy and produces high quality products. When fitted with a waste heat evaporator, the process is virtually ‘zero waste’, resulting in high product yields and low wastewater output.

The first stage in a larger rendering redevelopment project, two further stages are proposed in the future. The complete project is said to save 9,000 tonnes of lignite and more than 1.5 million hours of electricity a year, enough to power 170 homes a year, the company says.

John Brader says the new rendering plant represented the largest single investment at the Lorneville plant for more than a decade.

“Completion of the building marks a major milestone for the development. Rendering remains a significant contributor to Alliance Group’s income and the investment in the latest technology will ensure we maximise revenue in this area.

“Alliance measures energy use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions from its plant to assist in making good business decisions.

“Since 2000, Alliance Group has reduced greenhouse gas emissions from energy use at its processing plants by 26 percent per unit of production and total fuel use has been reduced by 32 percent.”

Almost 2,000 people are employed at Lorneville, which is New Zealand’s largest sheepmeat processing plant.